The Leader and National Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Prof. Edmund Delle, has underscored the need for all Nkrumaists to bury their ego and join the mother party - the CPP - to wrest political power from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2020 election.

“This is the time for all Nkrumaist parties to join the mother party and work together for 2020 election victory,” he advised.

The CPP, People’s National Convention (PNC), Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and the All People’s Congress (APC) all take their legacy from the CPP.

Speaking on Ghana’s 61st independence anniversary which fell on Tuesday, March 6, 2018, the CPP national chairman pointed out that the idea of splinter Nkrumaist parties scoring “zero, zero” at polling station elections was a nightmare, and it was only a united Nkrumaist front that could change the depressing electoral fortunes.

According to Prof. Dell it would be wrong for splinter Nkrumaist parties to wait till national elections were due to begin talking about unity which eventually yielded no fruits.

Don’t sit aloof

In his view, true Nkrumaists would not sit doing nothing until election, and only wish that the CPP would grow to become attractive.

“To become attractive, you cannot sit aloof,” he cautioned, saying: “The CPP is our legacy and we do not have to let it become moribund.”

“This time I am pleading with all true Nkrumaists to cultivate the will and remain loyal to do much better for the survival of the CPP,” he charged.

61 years on

According to Prof. Delle, 61 years on, every national issue was still politicised, stating: “We are always talking on party political lines as against the national interest.”

He said it was time the country got a third force as an alternative political party to bring national focus to governance.

Going into the 61st independence anniversary, Prof. Delle called on political parties and politicians to eschew extreme partisan politics which would lead the country nowhere.

In the view of Prof. Delle, if members of the various Nkrumaist parties worked in unity, they could easily become the third force to defeat both the NPP and the dominant opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Rebuilding CPP

On what the CPP was doing to revitalise the party, Prof. Delle said the leadership had started a countrywide visitation of the elders of the party, who he described as very influential in CPP affairs.

So far, he said, the leadership had visited some elders in the Volta, Northern, Eastern, Central and Greater Accra regions and on all those occasions, the elders had been very helpful with rich ideas on the way forward.

He emphasised that if there was peace in the CPP, it also had to do with the wise counsel of the aged elders.

“The elders of the CPP,” he mentioned, “have made sacrifices to the growth of the party and we need to identify them wherever they are to laud their efforts.”

He also disclosed that the building of the party’s database was underway, while re-registration of genuine party members was ongoing at the polling station level.

He gave an assurance that, “If we are able to register at worst a genuine member each at the 29,000 polling stations across the country, it will automatically translate into 29,000 votes for the party.”

Widow’s mite

Prof. Delle indicated that it was time for members of the party to contribute to support the party, adding that the leadership of the party was encouraging members to do so.

He said they had grouped the membership of the party into Platinum, Gold, Bronze and Ordinary. Platinum membership was GH¢10,000 while gold membership was GH¢500 cedis, with ordinary membership as low as GH¢2.

“This time around, we want to ensure that our database is made up of genuine members of the CPP.”

Moral compass

The national chairman called on Ghanaians to see the CPP as a moral compass which stood for rendering selfless service to the people.

“We believe the welfare of Ghanaians is our supreme interest and we do not believe in a party which has a region as its ‘World Bank’ in terms of garnering votes.”

He promised that the CPP would continue to offer loyal opposition where the national interest would be the key consideration.